President George W. Bush, following his Mar. 14 address to the Economic Club of New York, as part of a response to a question from Paul A. Gigot, Wall Street Journal editorial page editor, about oil and other rising prices :
"Our energy policy has not been very wise. You can't build a refinery in the United States. You can't expand a refinery in the United States. The Congress believes we shouldn't be drilling for oil and gas in a productive part of our country like [the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge] because it will destroy the environment, which, in fact, it won't. Technology is such that will enable us to find more oil and gas. And so as a result of us not having, you know, been robust in exploring for oil and gas at home, we're dependent on other countries. That creates an economic issue, obviously, and it creates a national security issue.
"And, look, I'm . . . an alternatives fuel guy, I believe that's important. As a matter of fact, we've expanded, mightily expanded, the use of ethanol, a slight consequence if you rely upon corn to grow your hogs, but nevertheless it's a policy that basically says that we got to diversify. But diversification does not happen overnight. You know, I firmly believe people in New York City are going to be driving automobiles on battery relatively quickly. And it's not going to be like a golf cart, it will be a regular-sized vehicle that you'll be driving in. And I think it's coming. I think this technology is on its way.
"But there's a transition period, and we, frankly, have got policies that make it harder for us to become less dependent on oil. You talk about the price of oil – yeah, it's high. It's high because demand is greater than supply . . . It's high because there are new factors in demand on the international market, namely China and India. It's also high because some nations have not done a very good job of maintaining their oil reserves, some of it because of bureaucracy, some of it because of state-owned enterprise. And it's a difficult period for our folks at the pump, and there's no quick fix.
"You know, when I was overseas in the Middle East, people said, did you talk to the King of Saudi Arabia about oil prices? Of course I did. I reminded him two things: One, you better be careful about affecting markets, reminding him that oil is fungible. Even though we get most of our oil, by the way, from Canada and Mexico, oil is fungible. And secondly, the higher the price of oil, the more capital is going to come into alternative sources of energy. And so we've got a plan that calls for diversification, but our energy policy hadn't been very wise up to now."
